Highlights of the August 2007 issue
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Between the Lines
Idrees Bakhtiar
There are times when I am overwhelmed by helplessness. So overpowering is this feeling that I want to question those who rule the country and then suddenly disappear from the scene.
The last time I felt like this was on August 17, 1988, the day General Ziaul Haq died in an air crash. He had ruled the country with an iron hand. Along with the rest of the people, the journalists had also suffered significantly during his regime, especially when he imposed censorship. A few months prior to the airplane crash which took his life, he had dismissed prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo’s government. No valid reason was given; Zia did not need any to sack his own hand-picked prime minister. But then, he did not have any valid reason for ruling the country for more than a decade either.
The creation of a new political alliance minus the PPP gives Musharraf
some room to manoeuvre
After the Multi Party Conference (MPC) held last month in London, the
political battle lines are clearly drawn. Perhaps the largest gathering of
opposition parties in years, the London meeting proved to be an
extraordinary event. But, rather than what happened at the conference, it’s
what did not that merits attention. Though Nawaz Sharif, the main force
behind the MPC, succeeded in forging a new grand alliance of 32 opposition
parties, the absence of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from it has set the
direction of the future course of Pakistani politics.
By Ghafar Ali Khan
As the
operation against the Lal Masjid was wrapped up in Islamabad, retaliatory
attacks took place in the tribal areas
Jamia Haji Sahib Turangzai, an old mosque in the town of Ghaziabad
in the Lakaro tehsil of the Mohmand Agency has “Lal Masjid” scrawled across
its wall, in red paint. Parading around its premises are the armed masked
men responsible for giving the mosque its new name, led by Umer Khalid. They
forcefully occupied the mosque and the adjacent shrine of Haji Sahib
Turangzai on July 29 and declared that it would, henceforth, be known as Lal
Masjid, where they would construct madrasahs for boys and girls.
Defining The Endgame
By Idrees Bakhtiar
Options seem to be shrinking for Musharraf as the nation hurtles towards a
presidential election
That General Pervez Musharraf has stepped into the twilight zone of his rule
is evident from all the jittery moves he has made since Chief Justice
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s reinstatement on July 20. Whether or not
Musharraf finds an escape door from the non-fictional zone, he is unlikely
to be the same again — as president, army chief or even political godfather
of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ). Political
commentators and analysts are convinced that his eight-year-long tryst with
absolute rule has run its course and has even gone into extra time, a view
that resonates with the opposition leaders as well.
Miscalculations over the impact of Mirani Dam prove costly for the
inhabitants of Kech district
For decades the people of Balochistan’s Kech district had dreamed of a
miracle water reservoir project that would help them bring more land under
cultivation. At least such was the expectation before Mirani Dam was built.
Once the dam’s work began in earnest, serious design flaws were pointed out
by Kech Valley’s residents who reprimanded its builders – the Water and
Power Development Authority (Wapda) and National Engineering Services
Pakistan Limited (Nespak) – for not incorporating essential safety features
into the plan. These observations were probably laughed off by the builders,
especially since the valley’s residents were largely unlettered and
untrained in engineering.
Sixty Years of Being Pakistani
Sixty years later, Pakistan is still undecided about its ideology and
place in the global order, with few takers of the brand Pakistan
Well before they turn 60, most countries sort out their concerns about
their own identity and where they are located in the global order.
Either following independence or revolutions – both processes that bring
about large-scale structural transformation – these issues are usually
soon resolved. Looking back just a few decades, numerous examples of
either type of success story abound. From Malaysia, South Africa and
India to Vietnam, China and Cuba, countries and their people have come
to terms with their own histories and identity, about their political
systems and their place in the world. Many of these nations are
responsible democracies as well as emerging economic powers, in a
position to make a mark on, and to adapt to, the ever-changing economic
and political global order.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
1911-1984
Profiles by Alefia T. Hussain, Ali Asghar, Arshad Majeed Shamsi, Faizan Diwan, Huma Yusuf, Khadija Ghazi, Maleeha Hamid Siddiqui, Nadia Jajja and Rubab Karrar.
On the sixtieth anniversary of Pakistan, the Herald brings you 60
personalities who have left an indelible mark on the country’s culture, arts
and sports. Away from the failed politics of a failed state, we have decided
to celebrate the talent and the genius of those who shaped the culture and
the arts of a country, the governments of which have always been indifferent
at best and detrimental to what ultimately defines a society and a people.
For long after the bombs have fallen silent and the rhetoric of dictators is
consigned to the dustbin, what is left of a nation is its arts – its poets,
writers, artists, composers, singers, sportsmen, architects, film-makers,
performing artistes and all those who celebrated and preserved this rich
heritage.